James Webb Telescope

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Quite the ambitious project for "only" 10 billion bucks.  Hope it doesn't blow up on the pad, and I hope all those things that must work, actually work when it gets on station.  We only have three more days to find out!

 

 

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Current Status of James Webb Telescope platform (live stream)

 

[RickR]

[CrossBow]

I hadn't really been following this until recently as I honestly was in the camp that it would never actually happen. I'm glad to see it launched without issue. But why wait so long for all the other parts to deploy?! Streatching it out over days and in fact nearly a month out. It would pretty much suck if there is a problem with those final deployments and the thing is already past Luna! Wouldn't exactly be easy or cheapish to send up a crew for repairs at that point. 

So why not deploy all the bits now to make sure when it is still more reachable closer to Earth?

 

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2 hours ago, CrossBow said:

It would pretty much suck if there is a problem with those final deployments and the thing is already past Luna! Wouldn't exactly be easy or cheapish to send up a crew for repairs at that point. 

So why not deploy all the bits now to make sure when it is still more reachable closer to Earth?

 

I don't think that thing was ever expected to be worked on like the hubble.  Not only is it too far away, it's fragile as all get out.  It's my hope that things works out, but there are quite literally over a hundred things that have go perfectly in order as it's deployed.  🤞

[CrossBow]

Here is something else I've always wondered...

micro meteorite impacts? I mean it looks super fragile as you said and we know how often the ISS has been hit with a few things here and there. I'm surprised Hubble hasn't sustained more damage over its long lifespan than it has!

But I just picture that entire sun shield umbrella looking like swiss cheese in just a few years time to say nothing of the exposed mirrors.

 

[RickR]

Why do we distrust the experts? 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/how-hardy-is-webb-a-qa-about-the-toughness-of-nasa-s-webb-telescope

[RickR]

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8 hours ago, RickR said:

Why do we distrust the experts? 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/how-hardy-is-webb-a-qa-about-the-toughness-of-nasa-s-webb-telescope

Sure it can take the shake, rattle and roll of launch (when it's all closed up), it's designed to withstand radiation and micro-meteorite (grain of sand sized) strikes and theoretically could be refueled.   BUT, working on that thing would be next to impossible.  What are you going to hold on to?  Leverage is important when working in a zero gravity type environment, the amount of force it takes to loosen something is directly applied to whatever you are holding on to otherwise the Astronaut will be the one spinning.  I hope they are correct about the rarity of larger objects, because one fist sized rock travelling at a decent speed would easily rip through all those thin thermal layers and effectively blind the telescope.

[CrossBow]

12 hours ago, - Ω - said:

Sure it can take the shake, rattle and roll of launch (when it's all closed up), it's designed to withstand radiation and micro-meteorite (grain of sand sized) strikes and theoretically could be refueled.   BUT, working on that thing would be next to impossible.  What are you going to hold on to?  Leverage is important when working in a zero gravity type environment, the amount of force it takes to loosen something is directly applied to whatever you are holding on to otherwise the Astronaut will be the one spinning.  I hope they are correct about the rarity of larger objects, because one fist sized rock travelling at a decent speed would easily rip through all those thin thermal layers and effectively blind the telescope.

Or hit it with enough force to take it out of its L2 orbit and end up crashing into the moon or going out further into space. If lucky, it would only knock it sideways a bit that they could get it back into orbital alignment, but it doesn't have a ton of fuel on board either as we discussed. Interesting it is designed to take some hits and good forward thinking. Time will tell...

 

[RickR]

News alert:  We don't have space shuttles anymore.  There is no option to repair anything in orbit other than the space station. 

What exactly would you ask the design engineers to design for as far as repair missions?  Add a dock?   

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1 hour ago, RickR said:

News alert:  We don't have space shuttles anymore.  There is no option to repair anything in orbit other than the space station. 

What exactly would you ask the design engineers to design for as far as repair missions?  Add a dock?   

If you paid Elon Musk and SpaceX enough I bet he could come up with something.  😉 

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<< HERE >> is a real cool website with status, location and updates for Webb.

 

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Hey!  Wanna build a model of the James Webb Space Telescope for FREE?  If so, click on this << PDF LINK >>!  Print it up, cut it out and assemble it!

[RickR]

Great news

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/remarkably-nasa-has-completed-deployment-of-the-webb-space-telescope/

 

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No science... but the mirrors are aligned!

 

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NASA is scheduled to release the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.  This are looking pretty sharp...

[CrossBow]

You didn't mention that one of the mirrors was already hit with a micro meteorite and they have to adjust to compensate for that now too.

 

[RickR]

Holy crap.  It's just testing the lock algorithm now and producing images like this.  Everything without the six-pointed diffraction is a galaxy.

 

https://www.physics-astronomy.com/2022/07/nasa-just-released-unexpected-deepest.html

 

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4 hours ago, RickR said:

Holy crap.  It's just testing the lock algorithm now and producing images like this.  Everything without the six-pointed diffraction is a galaxy.

Yeah, kinda makes a guy feel real small...

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I decided to process the image a little, to compensate for the either red shift and background overcompensation. 

 

 

 

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Honestly I cannot wait until the 12th.  I'm really, really, really, looking forward to seeing what NASA unveils as their "BLOCKBUSTER IMAGE".

[RickR]

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Pretty!

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Here's a larger version...